L'Artisan Parfumeur
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The fennel seed strikes first—green, slightly medicinal, with that distinctive anisic bite that makes your nose prickle. Grapefruit weaves through it, not quite sweet, more like pith than flesh, creating a pale citrus halo that feels almost austere. There's an immediate woodiness underneath, dry and blonde, promising what's to come.
The grain notes emerge fully now, with wheat and ambrette seed creating this remarkable bready-musky accord that sits just left of gourmand. Iris lends its rooty, slightly carrot-like facets, adding a refined powderiness that feels more mineral than cosmetic. The fennel's spice lingers at the edges, preventing the composition from becoming too soft, too yielding.
Sandalwood takes the stage, but it's lean and pale, more Nordic than Indian, buffed smooth by benzoin's gentle sweetness. Gaiac adds a whisper of smoke, like pencil shavings, whilst cedar provides a papery dryness. What remains is skin-close and comforting—flour dust on warm wood, the ghost of spice, a memory of something both edible and architectural.
Jean-Claude Ellena's Bois Farine is a study in restraint, a fragrance that whispers rather than shouts. The name—'flour wood'—tells you everything: this is sandalwood rendered through the lens of a mill, where grain dust hangs in shafts of warm light. The opening fennel provides an anise-tinged edge that keeps the composition from sliding into easy comfort, whilst grapefruit adds a citric brightness that feels almost ascorbic against the starchy heart. This is where Ellena's genius shows—ambrette seed brings its musky, vegetal warmth to wheat and iris, creating an effect that's simultaneously powdery and slightly green, like fresh-cut timber in a bakery. The iris never veers into cosmetic territory; instead, it adds a mineralised quality that prevents the gourmand accords from becoming cloying. The wood base is polished and pale, with gaiac's subtle smokiness earthing the sweeter benzoin, whilst cedar provides structure without astringency. This isn't sandalwood as creamy exoticism but as utilitarian material, planed and sanded. It's for those who appreciate Ellena's signature translucency, who want to smell quietly expensive rather than obviously perfumed. Perfect for the person who wears cashmere and linen, who appreciates negative space in both architecture and composition. A contemplative scent that rewards close attention, worn against clean skin in temperate weather.
Add fragrances to your collection and unlock your personalised scent DNA, note map, and shareable identity card.
4.1/5 (180)